Hogue earns breakthrough triumph at Lincoln Speedway

ABBOTTSTOWN – Rookie Austin Hogue ran a great race and got a late-race break to score his first career win in the Delco Designs Night 410 sprint car feature at Lincoln Speedway Saturday night.

“When it's you day, it's your day,” said Hogue upon exiting the family BAPS Auto Paints and Supply/Livingston Lawn Care/Zirkle's Garage #52 in victory lane, “I'm sure Danny (Dietrich) was all over me the whole time. It basically got rubber-down and I should have just stuck with it, but I tried to get greedy and get by Billy (Dietrich) in the middle and I lost it off turn two. The Lord was looking after me today, because the yellow came out and I was back in front. I won't do that again.”

The mistake Hogue was referring to was an attempt to drive around Billy Dietrich while Danny Dietrich was closing in. Dietrich, who started tenth, drove under both his brother and Hogue to take lead, only to have pass negated by a caution flag for third-place Aaron Ott, who spun at the entrance to turn three.

“I'm shaking, I can't believe it! This is just amazing!” said Hogue, “We struggled here all year, but this is my favorite track. It's a taken a while to get a hold of it with the 410. This was like a 358 track tonight, and it was nice to get on a track I'm used to.”

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“It's a whole ‘nother world with these 410 sprints,” continued Hogue, “Everybody is so close, and anytime you're off, it makes it really tough to stay with the guys that have been doing this as long as I've been alive.”

Wilson started on the pole and led the first 12 laps before sixth-starting Hogue took over. The race went non-stop until Ott's spin on lap 24, setting up the two-lap dash to the checkered.

Heats for the 34 sprinters were won by Kendall, Hogue, McIntyre, and Freddie Rahmer, with Jim Siegel winning the consolation.

Brian Montieth shook off a personal and team dry spell in claiming the 30-lap, $5,000-to-win Hilly Rife Memorial make-up feature earlier in the evening. Montieth started fifth and grabbed the race lead from polesitter and race-long leader Ryan Bohlke in heavy lapped traffic on the 17th lap. He drove away to a three-second win over Steve Owings to score his 42nd career Lincoln win, but his first of the season in the Pigeon Hills.

Bohlke crossed third, followed by McIntyre and 13th-starting Danny Dietrich.

Jeff Rohrbaugh started on the pole and brought another Delco Designs car to victory lane after leading every lap to cap off a career-first two-win weekend in the 358 sprint car feature. The final margin of victory in Rohrbaugh's tenth career Lincoln win was 1.25 seconds.

Doug Hammaker ran second to Rohrbaugh the entire race, with 11th-starting Niki Young, Chandler Leiby, and Chase Dietz completing the top five.

Heats for the 29 358 sprinters were won by Matt Campbell, Jordon Givler, and Young, with Ashley Cappetta winning the consolation.

Kevin Thomas of St. Thomas claimed his first career Lincoln win in his final year of racing in the 4-cylinder stock car feature. Thomas won the first heat and drew a zero pill for the inversion, placing him on the pole for the event.

He led every lap, crossing 2.5 seconds ahead of Frankie Gordon, with Chris Anderson, Gary Newell, and Jeremy Ott finishing third through fifth.

Heats for the 24 4-Cylinder Stocks were won by Thomas, Shane Sixeas, and Ott.

Lincoln swings back into action with a special mid-week show on Wednesday, June 4th, featuring the second stop on USAC's annual Eastern Storm swing. The wingless sprint cars will be joined by the URC 360-358 Super Series, the first time the two oldest sprint car sanctioning bodies will ever appear on the same track on the same night. Pit gates open at 5:00 p.m., with general admission gates opening at 5:30 p.m. and USAC time trials getting underway at 7:30 p.m.

Then on Saturday, June 7th, Lincoln will host the Annual Daryl Gohn/Glenn Gohn, Sr. Memorial for the 410 sprint cars. They will be joined by the 358 sprint cars, which will also make up their feature event from May 24th, and the All-American Outlaws. Time trials for that show will begin at 7:30 p.m., with gates opening at 5:30 p.m.

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